PS3 Attitude’s PSM picks – Beats Slider/Fuel Tiracas

PlayStation Mobile is finally with us, and launched with over 20 titles that can be played on both PlayStation Vita and any PlayStation Certified Android device. With so many games to choose from, and more promised every week, it’s hard to know which are worth your time, so PS3 Attitude is here to give our opinion on the best PS Mobile titles so far.

Let’s start with the two launch games from Futurlab, the talented team behind the popular PS minis Coconut Dodge and the critically acclaimed Velocity. Beats Slider and Fuel Tiracas also happen to be the cheapest PSM games currently available, so are they worth a punt?

Beats Slider

You may (or may not) remember a small rhythm/music game called Beats from the early days of the PlayStation Portable. Now, Futurlab’s Beats Slider (along with fellow PS Mobile launch game, Beats Trellis), takes the franchise in a completely different direction.

And what direction is that, you ask? Sliding puzzles; yes, you probably think that sounds very boring, but the twist with Beats Slider is that each tile adds a bar of music to the track when placed correctly, so the background music evolves as you solve the puzzle.

It’s a nice twist on an old game, and there’s a decent number of levels considering the extremely low price of admission. The game’s 15 puzzles progress in difficulty and each includes local leaderboards and medals to unlock (although doing so is fairly inconsequential).

However, the absence of online leaderboards hits the longevity of this title pretty hard, as once you’ve completed each puzzle, there’s very little reason to return. The unlockable Remix mode may let you move tiles freely to create new tunes, but it won’t entertain you for long.

Beats Slider is a well presented and addictive little game, and the low price is just about right for the amount of content on offer. For 65p, you’ll get an hour or two of fun on your Vita or Android device, so if that sounds appealing then you really can’t go wrong with Futurlab’s latest.

Fuel Tiracas

If you thought 65p was cheap, the price of Futurlab’s second PS Mobile title, Fuel Tiracas, might just make you fall out of your chair. Just 40p will get you arguably the most addictive PSM game so far, and even includes that holy grail of features; online leaderboards!

Fuel Tiracas is described by the developer as a combination of Whack-a-Mole and Spinning Plates. The aim is to create a breathable atmosphere on planet Tiracas, by tapping the six fuel nodes to raise each level’s fuel gauge into the target threshold, ensuring you don’t go over or under.

It’s an incredibly simple mechanic, but the twelve levels get increasingly more frantic as new elements get thrown into the mix, such as nodes that must be tapped multiple times, paired nodes that have to be pressed together, and contaminated nodes that should be left alone.

Of course, you can simply spam all the nodes for a half-decent time, but each level’s sequence actually repeats itself, so the ultra fast times are achieved by memorising the pattern. It sounds impossible, but the online leaderboards show that this isn’t the case.

Speaking of leaderboards, it’s a bit of a shame that they aren’t tied directly to your PSN ID (yet), but this is a problem with PlayStation Mobile itself, not Fuel Tiracas. The current leaderboards still work extremely well though, and at 40p, you’d frankly have to be mad to not give this game a try.